Bill Callahan of Smog has a line in one of
his songs:...I was worse than a stranger--I was
well-known. I got a
new feeling for the truth of that today when
in between
errands on my bike I stopped at the Jakub
pub for a quick
one and chanced into Pavel, to whom I'd been
introduced
a week before. He asked if I could help him
turn some hay in
his big backyard. Sure, I said. But somehow
this entailed a trip
to a bar in nearby Chotusice, several beers
in his barn with many
cats and a dog who wouldn't eat the cake set
out for him on the floor,
15 minutes of actual raking, a big plate of
gulas, booze and cigarettes,
and finally after 8 hours of this a visit to
milk his mama goat. Lucky for me,
he had to go work the nightshift at 10
o'clock. I went home and puked in the
bathroom sink, rueing the tenacity of Czech
hosting and my inability to say no.